Rain gutters are more than a visually interesting architectural detail. They are in fact an integral part of the weatherproof shell of a dwelling or outbuilding. To function properly, rain gutters which collect runoff from the roof must prevent the water so collected from coming in contact with either the walls or the foundation of the building on which they are installed. Downspouts receive water from the rain gutters and conduct the water, isolated from the weather shell of a building, to the foundation of the building. Equally, or perhaps more important than the downspouts which conduct rain water past the walls of a building, are the downspout laterals which conduct the water away from the building foundation.
Buildings which have large roof line overhangs of two, three or more feet can possibly get along without a rain gutter system. Nonetheless, all buildings benefit from a rain gutter system. In many buildings that are constructed for architectural or functional reasons with little or no roof overhang rain gutters and downspouts are essential to prevent moisture penetration of the walls of the building. Moisture penetration of the walls of a building leads to structural defects and to warping and rotting or corrosion of the structural components of the walls. Leakage of rain water through the walls also damages the contents of a building.
What is not always as well understood is that rain water deposited at the foundation of a building can have even greater consequences. Excess water deposited at the foundation of a building can result in a leaky foundation which in the case of a basement can result in flooding and in the case of a house built over a crawl space or on a slab can result in the rotting of sill plates and any structural member in contact with the foundation. Excess rain water deposited adjacent to the foundation can also result in the buckling or collapsing of the interior basement or foundation walls, completely undermining the structural integrity of a building.
Thus, downspouts normally have short sections of gutter pipe, known as downspout laterals, which channel the water from the downspouts away from the foundation. The foundation around a buildings is normally graded so as to slope gently away from the foundation. Thus water once removed from the immediate vicinity of the foundation is rapidly removed from the area of the building by the slope of the ground.
A problem with downspout laterals is that they quite frequently extend into the lawn surrounding a building or dwelling and therefore interfere with the mowing and upkeep of the landscape. Unless the laterals are laboriously disassembled and reassembled each time the lawn is mowed, patches of unsightly, uncut grass and weeds develop about the laterals. To overcome this problem, laterals which are hinged to the downspout and tilt up out of the way have been developed. However, the nature of the geometry of most downspouts and hinged laterals is such that their stability in the tilted up position is at best precarious, thus, there is a need for some retention device to retain the tilted up lateral while yard maintenance is being conducted.
Downspout retention devices are known. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,861,419 to Johnson, discloses a J-shaped clip which retain the upper edge of a tilted-up downspout lateral. However, the Johnson retention device is required to be positioned at a fixed location on the downspout and thus must be employed with a lateral whose dimensions are known and thus requires careful fitting of the downspout lateral. Most downspouts are assembled with interfitting, sleave joints which by their nature are not precise in locating the joint. Other tip-up retaining devices such as those shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,270,572 and 5,014,745, not adjustable and require one or more components to be accurately and fixedly screwed or attached to either the downspout, the lateral or both.
Not only can additional costs and installation effort be required with prior art downspout clips, but the prior art clips can be themselves visually unsightly.
What is needed is a downspout clip for retaining tipped up laterals which is simple to install and utilize and has minimum visual impact.